Leader of the House written question – answered at on 18 November 2025.
Martin Wrigley
Liberal Democrat, Newton Abbot
To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to the Point of Order from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay of 29 October 2025, what recent guidance he has sent to Departments on paragraph 221 of the Guide to Parliamentary Work, published in November 2024.
Alan Campbell
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, Chair, Modernisation Committee, Chair, Modernisation Committee
The government's position regarding the relationship between the treatment of requests for information through parliamentary questions and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 - as set out in the Guide to Parliamentary Work - is unchanged.
I have written to all Members of Cabinet and spoken with Departmental Parliamentary Clerks to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and helpful responses to parliamentary questions.
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The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
